MOSCOW: Moscow said Wednesday it had downed three Ukrainian drones and accused Kyiv of perpetrating a “terror” attack, after officials said the vehicles had targeted a military base near Russia’s capital.
“An attempt today by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by three aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles on facilities in the Moscow region was thwarted,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added that each of the drones was downed by electronic warfare defensive systems and that no one was injured in the attack.
Earlier the governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov said two drones had crashed around “on approach to storage units of a military base” some 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Moscow.
The attack came as Ukraine is waging a counter-offensive to recapture land seized by Russian troops.
Kyiv said on Wednesday that its air defense systems had shot down six Iranian-designed attack drones launched by Russia forces over the western Khmelnytskyi region.
Those attacks came one day after Ukrainian officials said Russia had deployed a “massive” barrage of nearly three dozen assault UAVs that targeted key infrastructure in western Ukraine.
Attacks, mostly by drones, on Russian territory bordering Ukraine have increased over the past weeks.
Moscow and its environs, lying some 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, have up to now been rarely targeted.
In early May, two drones were shot above the Kremlin and late the same month drones hit Moscow high-rises.

BEIJING: China on Wednesday labelled as “ridiculous” comments by US President Joe Biden equating his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping with “dictators.”

“The relevant remarks by the US side are extremely ridiculous and irresponsible, they seriously violate basic facts, diplomatic protocol and China’s political dignity,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular briefing, adding: “They are an open political provocation.”

Biden’s comments come a day after top US diplomat Antony Blinken visited Beijing to stabilize bilateral relations that China says are at their lowest point since formal ties were established.

Biden also said Xi was very embarrassed when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was blown off course over US airspace early this year, making a personal comment on the Chinese leader when Blinken said on Monday the “chapter” should be closed.

It was unclear why Biden made the comments on Xi – China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong after he secured a precedent-breaking third term as president and head of the Communist Party.

“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,” Biden said at a fundraiser in California.

“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened. That wasn’t supposed to be going where it was. It was blown off course,” Biden added.

Biden also said China “has real economic difficulties.”

Blinken and Xi agreed in their meeting to stabilize the intense rivalry between Washington and Beijing so it did not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any breakthrough during a rare visit to China by the secretary of state.

They did agree to continue diplomatic engagement with more visits by US officials in the coming weeks and months. Biden said later on Tuesday that US climate envoy John Kerry may go to China soon.

Biden said on Monday he thought relations between the two countries were on the right path, and he indicated that progress was made during Blinken’s trip.

Biden said on Tuesday that Xi had been concerned by the so-called Quad strategic security group, which includes Japan, Australia, India and the United States. The US president said he previously told Xi the US was not trying to encircle China with the Quad.

“He called me and told me not to do that because it was putting him in a bind,” Biden said.

Later this week, Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China is expected to be a topic of discussion between the two leaders.